Clara's Dark Secrets

by Ebonyisbadatfanfics

The Doctor is used to hearing Clara's tormented screams during the night, when she is asleep, and knows she refused to talk about them. But when he hears her cries again one night, something is different. He finds her curled up in her bed screaming, as usual, but this time she's awake. As the Doctor tries to soothe her, will he find out what dark secrets shes hiding?

A/N: This is my very first fanfiction, so I'm open to any constructive criticism : )

**DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I do not own Doctor Who, or its characters. They all belong to the amazing works of the BBC**

Clara Oswald was a strong, feisty, confident girl; there was no doubt about it.
But she was just that- a girl. And even though she'd faced ghosts and aliens and living, really-actually-alive planets, Clara was a delicate soul with a haunted mind. She kept on a brave face for the world; most especially the Doctor.

He had it tough already, without her own problems; she saw it in the shadows that clung to his thousand-year-old eyes, the weight of the universe hunching his shoulders.
It was the little hints she added up that showed who the doctor really was. His kindness and enthusiasm showed compassion, his wit and cockiness showed intelligence.
But the thing Clara picked up on and saw clear and day itself was his refusal to accept help from others; he was sad, cursed with the knowledge of the universe, and so, so very alone.

So she kept her dark secrets to herself, pushing them out of her mind until sleep came, where she lay in her bed and let the nightmares come.
Extensive though the TARDIS was, the Doctor heard her twisted screams during the night; echoing through the halls, riding on an invisible wind that rushed into whatever room he was in. It was followed by a hushing sound, as if the TARDIS herself was soothing Clara, whispering soft lullabies with her gentle breeze.

The doctor left her alone now when he heard her strangled sobs cry through the corridors, although in the early days he would rush into her bedroom, fear clenching his stomach as his mind chanted please be safe, please be safe, please be safe.. But every night she was still there, safe and asleep, if a little flustered in the tangled mess of her bedsheets.

The doctor sat in the library, reading through a collection of history books from earth, laughing softly as he caught sight of the paragraph where an eye-witness had spotted himself and Amy running through the streets of London 1734. "There was a man in a funny red hat, and a woman with bright orange hair, glowing like fire!"
He leant back on his chair and sighed reminiscently. Silence rested over the TARDIS like a blanket, soft and gentle.

And then, there was her screams shooting through the quiet like a bullet.
The doctor toppled back on his chair, falling backward and smashing his head on the floor. He wrinkled his face in pain, rubbing his head and getting up from the floor.
When the sound of his muffled ouch's and rustling of pages falling to the floor died down, Clara's screams still pierced the night like a knife, silver and deadly and incredibly painful. The doctor went to continue on and clean up the mess, but something stopped him.
He listened more closely to her shrieks, ears straining to pick up what he thought he heard colouring her voice.
He found it.
There was something so different about her cries tonight, the usual pain and fear laced together, but these screams didn't echo through the TARDIS. They were solid, living things, ripping through the air viciously, tearing out his hearts with a menacing claw.
His mouth formed a small o as the pieces clicked together.
"Oh, Clara" he breathed, horror and panic hollow in his voice.
The doctor stumbled out of the library as he realised what he had heard in her voice that made this nightmare so different.
She was awake.